Thanks to Echo Speaks, I can now use audio/voice announcements. I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to share their most useful implementations of this feature. Right now I'm using it to announce when exterior doors open or close and when either my wife or I arrive home.
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Right now I have the following
- announce when either me or the wife arrive home, the messages are random and funny to keep it entertaining. The dog has picked up it now too. When he hears an announcement he runs to the laundry room door and activates the light so we walk into a lit area as well with a dog happy to see you.
- adding laundry completion announcements. Just trying to work out the code logic to get it right.
- when my doorbell rings, announcements in other parts the of the house are made in case we don't hear it.
For things like doors/windows open I rather phone push notifications. Sometimes announcements will make you jump or interrupt you when you least want it. I don't try to over do it.
Ha!
My home is never quiet 
Big WAF with laundry finished announcement.
Dogs go crazy with 'the wife is home' (didn't take them long to learn that one)
They also learned 'it's time to feed the dogs' very quickly too
'Fernando will start in about 2 minutes, please make sure there is nothing on the floor to obstruct him' (Fernano = Neato robovac)
We use it for morning random 'wake up' messages during the work week
We have a daily weather report at 11 am as I work mostly from home
One of our dogs is ill so we get:
'It's time to give Cookie her medication' three times a day
'There is someone at the front door'
If there is a weather alert - this blasts throughout the house as soon as it arrives.
I also have an announcement when my 'service desk' receives an email
When I say 'Alexa check security' she gives ma a report on which windows/doors are open
(Always use this before leaving the house)
I could go on for a really long time with this
Andy
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We do lots of announcements at my house...
- If it's below below 45 degrees outside, we get a reminder to start the truck on weekday mornings
- 3 times a day, it'll tell us it's time to feed the dogs
- 2 times a day, it reminds me to take my meds
- Washer and dryer finished announcements
- Dishwasher finished announcement
- Warnings about the refrigerator / freezer doors being open too long
- Warnings about the heat being on and a window / door is open
- Time to leave for school announcements
- Reminders on what needs to be brought to school each day (sneakers, trumpet, ...)
- Reminders on when to pick her up from school, depending on day and after school activities
- Reminders to take out the barrels on trash night (and whether its recycle week or not)
- Announces when someone has arrived, for those of us that are already in the house
- Custom 'Welcome Home' messages for those that just got home after we are in the house using my 'Welcome Home' app. (shameless plug!)
That's just off the top of my head... I'm sure there are more! 
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That's a great idea!
I have a Time for Kid1 and Kid2 to go to bed announcement.
I currently use it to announce outdoor lighting cycles and am going to try the Mighty Mule / Ecolink contact sensor hack to announce vehicles.
The garage door is open after 15 minutes, or when we set the house into sleep mode.
It is time to go to bed for my 7 year old.
OMG I would go insane if I were at some of your houses.... Lol... Too many voice alerts. 
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My house didn’t have a doorbell, so I have Alexa announce when the button is pressed (it’s wired through a z-wave Ecolink Sensor to communicate)
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one with the laundry alerts I also announce when our electric kettle is done boiling.
Doors
Washer has finished
Dryer has finished
I can also ask "Alexa, laundry status" and it will respond with
"the dryer is running", "the washer is running", "both the washer and dryer are running", or "neither the dryer or the washer are running".
Details Please 
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My wife often says the same... (apart from laundry, door and dog messages)
So.. I have to limit some of them based upon her presence.
When she is home probably 30% of them are turned off 
Andy
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....and DON'T use a male voice. WAF went to near-zero on that.
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Yep!
she hates being told what to do by a male voice
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Rule Machine. Four rules and a bunch of virtual switches. I'm using my own method for TTS, but there are so many choices now, the actions part for speech is up to the individual.
The washer part looks weird in my rules because I have two switch stages for it. This is due to the difficulty in determining the difference in current draw between my washer being idle vs rotating the drum at very low speed.
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Excellent. 
I happen to love Virtual devices. Which is great because I have two hubs and Link to Hub generates a good number of them.
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Does Amazon Polly have a "man-splaining" intonation setting? Then you could REALLY piss her off quickly.
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